ROCKFORD — Those who knew Terence Doddy saw warning signs in the weeks before June 30, when his good friend Todd Hansmeier, a Hononegah High School classmate and fellow drama club member, was found beaten and stabbed to death, his body partially burned.

His wife told police that Doddy had a gambling problem, and had stolen money and threatened to kill her.

His boss, Steve Korn, said Doddy was “upset” over an order of protection filed against him by his wife, but he never imagined it would lead to two homicide investigations.

Doddy, 36, of Rockford, is a suspect in Hansmeier’s death and in the July 1 death of a woman attacked at a Lee County rest stop. He was on the run until he was arrested July 4 just over the state line in Wisconsin. He is being held in a Wisconsin jail awaiting extradition to Illinois.

Doddy, the father of a 4-year-old boy, spent the past six years working in management at a QVSM call center on Alpine Road.

But Doddy’s wife, whose name the Rockford Register Star has chosen not to publish because she is a possible victim of domestic violence, filed for an order of protection after several violent incidents in June, Last week, she filed for divorce.

She wrote in court documents that Doddy had a gambling problem that escalated into threats of violence. The 6-foot-2-inch, 240-pound Doddy had threatened a stranger over a parking spot on June 13, she told police.

Then, she writes according to charging documents and in the petition for an order of protection, on June 18 her husband attacked her and took money from her purse. It was part of what she wrote as a “pattern of taking money” because of his “gambling and drinking.”

“I grabbed my purse and pleaded for him to not take all our money as we are already struggling to pay bills,” she wrote in court documents. “He pried my hands open to get to my purse.”

Doddy’s wife said she had tried to call police but that Doddy had wrenched her personal phone from her hands. He then knocked her to the ground as she attempted to use her work phone to dial 911, according to the statement.

“He pinned his knee into my chest and I stated that I couldn’t breathe,” she wrote. “I began to panic as I could not breathe and let go of the phone. ... He stated that he wouldn’t let me leave and if I tried to leave he would punch me until I am dead and then our son would have a dead mother and a father in jail.”

Page 2 of 3 - Less than two weeks later, Rockford firefighters found Hansmeier’s body when they responded to a fire alarm at the call center where Doddy worked.

Hansmeier, 37, was an insurance agent and an active participant in IGNITE Rockford, a community organization that promotes the city to young professionals, and he played in area recreational sports leagues.

Doddy also is a suspect in the July 1 slaying of Tonya Bargman, 44, of Monticello, who was found dead at the Willow Creek Rest Stop near Paw Paw on Interstate 39. That’s where authorities found Hansmeier’s car abandoned.

Illinois State Police said surveillance video shows Bargman being attacked by a man as she left the restroom. Her vehicle was stolen.

Doddy was captured July 4 when, police say, he crashed Bargman’s gray 2013 Nissan Altima into a tree along Highway 81 near Beloit, Wisconsin, while fleeing from authorities.

A neighbor near Doddy’s 15th Avenue home declined to give her name because she feared for her safety but said the Doddy family had kept to themselves. She also said she rarely saw his wife.

“I always thought it was something with her. Now I come to find out he was abusing her. I hope she comes back. I’d like to befriend her.”

While Doddy was on the run, police removed his wife and child from their home for their safety.

“He was upset over the order of protection he received,” QVSM co-owner Steve Korn said, “but he wasn’t threatening anybody because of it.”

Korn also said Hansmeier was a friend of Doddy’s and quickly became a friend of his other employees.

“He was here quite often over the last six months helping our employees enroll for health insurance through Obamacare.

“We’re all extremely mortified by the events that happened here. There was nothing to lead us to believe (Doddy) was capable of this.”

However, those who have known Doddy over the years have raised concerns to police about a former girlfriend who went missing 21 years ago.

Stephanie Johnston, 15, reportedly ran away from her Rockton home in October 1993. She was found dead on New Year’s Eve that year in a block of ice in the Rock River. An autopsy showed the Hononegah High School student had drowned in the river and Winnebago County Sheriff’s detectives never ruled out foul play.

Now the death investigation of Johnston’s death is being re-examined by police.

“Nobody knew anything back then, and now they do,” Stephanie’s father, William Johnston, told the Register Star last week. “I wish the people who are talking about this now would have said something then.”